Thursday, June 10, 2010
Programming
Actual programming in Java. And it works, and I'm rather proud of it. It's for work, and using a new interface with which I've not played before.Oh, and Moo and I are watching "The Thick of It": it's just, just genius.
Labels: humour
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Windows embarrassment
(backposting) I've been taking Windows machines and dual-booting them with Linux for something like 10-12 years. I've _never_ ended up not being able to boot back into Windows. Before this time. In fact, I'd be happier not to be using Windows at all, but I do need to have access to it for work. And it's a work laptop, of course. What a pain.Oh, and here's a video. More embarrassement?
Friday, January 22, 2010
And home - and away again. Oh, and a clown. Really
(backposting) Home's always the good bit, and I got there around 1400, mainly because the plane had been delayed by over an hour. I had a quick bath, got changed, and headed off to pick up Miri, who was with Victoria as Moo had a governors' meeting. Moo brought Jo back around 1530, and I had about two hours with all of them before they headed off to Moo's parents, and I headed off to the High Leighs Conference Centre for a CME weekend.This really wasn't what I needed. I was really quite jet-lagged, and the fact that we had a session with a priest/clown in the evening did little to make me less grumpy. Remember that Grumpy was a dwarf: I was a full-size, 6ft 2in grump giant. Although I got the point about leaving work, and enjoying ourselves, where exactly were God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Nowhere very obvious, is the problem.
Great to see lots of friends, and particularly good that we had all 3 years of curates there. Less grumpy by the time I got to bed, and went to sleep nice and quickly.
Labels: family, humour, ministry
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
America, Minchin, and a hat
- I'm not going to America tomorrow. Or next week, come to that. I'll go to London tomorrow and next week instead (assuming the weather holds and the roads/trains are operating as expected (do roads operate?))
- Watching the Tim Minchin DVD So f**cking rock, which Moo bought me for Christmas. Bl**dy brilliant.
- I made a hat. I knitted, all by myself. And it looks and feels and acts like a hat. So it _must_ be a duck. Or something. I'll be posting pictures, oh yes.
Labels: humour, knitting, travel
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
And back to Finland
Set off from home around 0740, got to Heathrow a couple of hours later, and did meet and greet parking this time. Just because it took ages to get back to my car last week, and, on top of quite a drive home on Friday night, time is precious. In Duty Free, I bought the 3 Shrek films (on offer) for the girls, and the second series of The IT Crowd for me and Moo. Watched some of it on the train. Just marvellous - had me laughing out loud on quite a few occasions.Caught the very efficient bus to the hotel, and got a double bed this time: I'm so unused to sleeping in a single that I keep nearly falling out (and yes, I'm talking about on my own here). I also joined the hotel's loyalty programme. They give you vouchers. Which you can spend on beer. This is a good thing.
Friday, October 09, 2009
The Beaker Folk make the Times Online
I've long been associated with the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley, though my involvement has been reduced of late, and it's good to see them getting a mention in the Times Online, thanks to Ruth Gledhill. I must remember to read the blog more often...Labels: humour
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Yarn Addiction Rehabilitation Network
"Yarn Addiction": an state in which a person becomes so engrossed in yarn-based activities that he/she is unable to interact with the outside world. Affects: knitters, spinners, dyers, weavers, etc.If you have a partner, spouse or relative who is a frequent - or recovering - Yarn Addict, then you are welcome to this (Facebook) support group.
Labels: facebook, humour, knitting
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Ladies' toilet
After a lovely meal with Jim, Nina, Poll, Lee, Florence and Frankie, we popped to Sainsbury's to do some shopping. At the end, Jo said she needed a wee, so I took her off to the toilets. The gents were frankly disgusting, and rather than doing the sensible thing and taking her into the disabled toilet, I accepted Jo's suggestion that she should go into the ladies. I stood outside, noting people going in and coming out: there was always someone in there at the same time.After a few minutes, I heard, "Daddy? Daddy?". I opened the door a couple of centimetres, and said "yes?". "Daddy, my croc has come off." "Just put it on later."
I closed the door. Another minute or so elapsed. "Daddy? I need help with my poo."
A laughing teenager opened the door and suggested I come in, which I did, and waited outside the door while Jo insisted finishing some more of her poo. A woman came out of the other occupied cubicle, laughing at me. In the end, Jo let me in.
The ladies' emptied, and I tried to chivvy Jo on, to no avail. Another woman came and entered a cubicle. "Shhh," I said as quietly as I could to Jo. "Why? Why do you want me to be quiet?" "Shhh!"
The other person finished, and left, and I thought we were clear, but another woman came in and occupied a cubicle. Jo finished, and again I thought we were clear, but she took ages to get her pants (two pairs?) and tights up: and just as we were unlocking the cubicle door, there was a flush from the other cubicle. I have literally never washed my hands and ushered a child out of a toilet quicker.
Moo laughed like a drain.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Mum, mum, singing and Harkaway
Not just the mother of my children, but my mum is also in the house, as she's come to stay. She's got a lovely Sony e-book type of thing, which which I'm rather impressed. On a separate note, I'm trying to collect a bunch of friends together to do some singing. And on another, yet more separate note, Nick Harkaway (aka Nick Cornwell) is annoyingly funny and clever, darn him.Monday, February 09, 2009
Crying children and comedy
No, not connected. Miri, last night, woke up just as I was just about to go up to bed. I calmed her down, and as I got ready to go to bed, Moo looked after her. When I went back in (Miri was already in our bed), Miri lost it: she really, really wanted Moo there, and cried - _really_ cried - for 30 minutes. I've never known anything like it. She was really sad, and in the end, I went downstairs, where Moo had luckily just finished the work she'd needed to do, and, after a while, Miri calmed down. Poor little thing.And today I've been finding out more about Tim Minchin, mainly by watching him on YouTube. He's very funny. As I put it on Facebook: you know how, if you're going to be entirely orthodox, certain people _are_ going to hell, but you hope you'll be there to enjoy it with them? Tim Minchin.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
More gems from Jo
Jo: Daddy: what's a pedant?(My job here is done)
Jo (tying an orange dressing-gown cord around the ear of one of her bears, who's allegedly been suffering from a sick bug for several weeks now): I'm tying the orange ribbon to her ear to stop her being sick.
Moo: will that make her feel better?
Me: is it an anti-emetic?
Jo: no, it's mine. It doesn't belong to anyone else.
(We suspect that she believes that she has an aunt about whom she didn't know before today, called "Emetic"...)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Quotes from the girls
Jo (part-quoting a poem she's learnt): If you may, if you might, stay up deep into the night. Asking God for gold and silver fishes. And if you're good, Miri, I'll give Daddy some of them.
Me: Jo, do you think it's better to ask God for money, or for happiness?
Jo: Happiness. And money.
Miri: 'ney! 'ney!
Jo ("reading" her Bible to Miri): A hundred years ago, God was born, then Jesus died.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Streaming
That's what I've been doing all day. Eyes and nose, plus coughing. A man cold is a dangerous thing, and needs to be carefully handled. I think we can all agree that it's vastly to my credit that I raised myself from my sickbed and did lots of work.Miri's much better, Jo had phlegmy vomit this morning but was fine by lunchtime, and Moo should be well enough to go to Birmingham tomorrow: but not being men, they don't run the risks we men do when we get ill. To be fair, I went to the chemist yesterday for a decongestant. I can't take sudafed due to hypertension, so he gave me a nasal spray. But I checked the instructions for dosages today, and it turns out that I shouldn't be having that either. See: danger all around.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Ska-ed for (everlasting) life
I couldn't resist the pun. Or the addition. I'm sorry.I'm not much of a devotee of Christian pop/rock at the best of times, but this has opened my eyes. There's a whole new subgenre that I'm suddenly interested in exploring. I'm wondering if we can book them for our next Family Eucharist. Or whether I can do a stealth booking for Gary's church.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sage
Well, _obviously_...You are a Sage, characterized by a thinking or head spirituality. You value responsibility, logic, and order. Maybe that's why you were voted "Most Dependable" by your high school classmates. Structure and organization are important to you. What would the world be like without you? Chaos, that's what! Your favorite words include should, ought, and be prepared. What makes you feel warm and fuzzy? Like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof it's tradition! tradition! tradition!
Because you love words, written or spoken, you enjoy a good lecture, serious discussions, and theological reflection. Prayer for you usually is verbal. You thrive on activity and gatherings of people, such as study groups. Sages on retreat likely would fill every day with planned activities, leaving little time for silence or solitude.
We need Sages for your clear thinking and orderly ways. You pay attention to details that others overlook. Sages make contributions to education, publishing, and theology. You often are the ones who feel a duty to serve, give, care, and share with the rest of us.
On the other hand, sometimes you seem unfeeling, too intellectual, or dry. Can you say "dogmatic"? You may need to experience the freedom of breaking a rule or two every now and then. God's grace covers Sages too, you know!
Famous Sages:
Mr. Spock | Dilbert | Elrond | Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Maya Angelou | Linus (Peanuts) | Yoda (Star Wars) | Andy Griffith | Mr. Miyagi | The Buddha | Rodin's The Thinker | Moses | Ross Geller | Matthew (the Gospel writer) | Tiger WoodsLabels: humour
Swearing
Today we had problems finding a parking space when we went to Sainsbury's today. When we finally found one, Jo said "My bugger". We assume she meant "Oh bugger". I downplayed it and told her she probably meant "my rugger", being a different word for "rugby". Moo didn't help as she was almost paralytic with laughter in the passenger seat.Jo's come up with some good questions recently, though.
- "what is grass made of?"
- "why did I come out of mummy as a girl?"
- "why do nettles have stings?"
- "what happens to sugar when you put it in tea?"
- "what is water made of?"
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Busy
Things are really hotting up at work. Lots of sales stuff coming along, but more and more non-sales stuff, too. I need to work out how this is all going to work together. Or not. We'll see.I forgot to blog about an incident on Sunday. At Ickworth Park there was a small zip wire for kids, and Jo had some gos on it. There was a boy of at least 2 years older than her, whose parents were being, shall we say, somewhat more protective than we are. When he was called away, he had a complete hissy fit. We just wouldn't put up with it, and as they went out of earshot, one father said to his kids: "if you acted like that, I'd throw your bike in the river. And if you didn't have a bike, I'd buy you one specially." We laughed. A lot.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Women bishops: yay! Maybe another 13 years of marriage, too
Rowan Williams said: "I am deeply unhappy with any scheme or any solution to this which ends up, as it were, structurally humiliating women who might be nominated to the episcopate." The General Synod voted "for". This means that we're going to have women bishops in the Church of England. And no "super-bishops", as the BBC puts it. A Code of Practice for people who won't accept this.Given Moo's views on this, this means that there's a decent chance that we'll manage another 13 years of marriage: we were married in King's College Chapel on the 8th July 1995. She's pleased, as am I. Oh - I meant about women bishops, though I think we're both pleased about 13 years of marriage.
This particular entry isn't going very well, but that's mainly because we're watching Series 1 of Peep Show, which I got Moo as a present. And I've been laughing too much.
Labels: church, humour, marriage, Moo, women
Friday, July 04, 2008
Church Times
Oh - one last thing. My mate Neil-Allan Walsh is depicted in the Church Times giving the Bishop of Chelmsford bunny ears in a photo. I think the bishop will find it funny. I _hope_ the bishop will find it funny...Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Miri's sense of humour
(backposting) Miri thinks that lots of things are very funny. In particular, warlking over to you pretending that she's going to give you something (a toy, a book, or even a cuddle), getting close, then shaking her head madly, turning away and toddling off. This is hilarious (particularly the head-shaking), and everyone gets to play.
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